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Mar_13:1-8. See on Mat_24:1-8. Comp. Luk_21:5-11. Mark has preserved the introduction in its original historical form. But Matthew has the discourse itself, although more artistically elaborated, in its greatest completeness from the collection of Logia and with some use of Mark; and that down to the consummation of the last judgment.[154]
ΠΟΤΑΠΟῚ ΛΊΘΟΙ ] qualcs lapides! ᾠκοδομήθη ὁ ναὸς ἐκ λίθων μὲν λευκῶν τε καὶ καρτερῶν , τὸ μέγεθος ἑκάστων περὶ πέντε καὶ εἴκοσι πηχῶν ἐπὶ μῆκος , ὀκτὼ δὲ ὕψος , εὖρος δὲ περὶ δώδεκα , Joseph. Antt. xv. 11. 3. See Ottii Spicileg. p. 175. Who uttered the exclamation? (Was it Peter? or Andrew?) Probably Mark himself did not know.
On the ποταπός belonging to later usage, see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 56 f.; Fritzsche, p. 554 f.
Mar_13:2. Ὃς Οὐ ΜῊ ΚΑΤΑΛ .] for Οὐ ΜΉ in the relative clause, see Winer, p. 450 [E. T. 635 f.] The conception here is: there shall certainly be no stone left upon the other, which (in the further course of the destruction) would be secure from being thrown down. Comp. Luk_18:30.
Mar_13:3. As previously, Mark here also relates more vividly ( ΚΑΤΈΝΑΝΤΙ ΤΟῦ ἹΕΡΟῦ ) and more accurately ( ΠΈΤΡΟς Κ . Τ . Λ .) than Matthew. According to de Wette (comp. Saunier, p. 132; Strauss, Baur), Mark is induced to the latter statement by the ΚΑΤʼ ἸΔΊΑΝ of Matthew—a specimen of the great injustice which is done to Mark as an alleged compiler.
ΕἸΠΌΝ ] Thus, and not ΕἾΠΟΝ , is this imperative (which is also current among the Attic writers; see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 348) to be accented in the N. T. See Winer, p. 49 [E. T. 58].
τὸ σημεῖον ] scil. ἜΣΤΑΙ : what will be the fore-token (which appears), when all this destruction is to enter on its fulfilment?
ΤΑῦΤΑ ΣΥΝΤΕΛ . ΠΆΝΤΑ ] (see the critical remarks) applies not to the buildings of the temple (Fritzsche, who takes συντελεῖσθαι as simul exscindi, comp. Beza), but, just like ΤΑῦΤΑ , to the destruction announced at Mar_13:2. To explain it of “the whole world” (as ΤΑῦΤΑ is well known to be so used by the philosophers, Bernhardy, p. 280) or of “all things of the Parousia” (Lange), is a forced course at variance with the context, occasioned by Mat_24:3[155] (in opposition to Grotius, Bengel). Moreover, the state of the case is here climactic; hence, while previously there stood merely ταῦτα , now πάντα is added; previously: ἔσται , now συντελεῖσθαι (be consummated).
Mar_13:5. Jesus now begins His detailed explanation as to the matter ( ἤρξατο ).
Mar_13:7. τὸ τέλος ] the end of the tribulation (see Mar_13:9), not the end of the world (so even Dorner, Lange, Bleek), which only sets in after the end of the tribulation. See on Mat_24:6.
Mar_13:8. καὶ ἔσονται … καὶ ἔσονται ] solemnly.
καὶ ταραχαί ] Famines and (therewith connected) disturbances, not exactly revolts (Griesbach), which the context does not suggest, but more general. Plat. Legg. ix. p. 861 A: ταραχή τε καὶ ἀξυμφωνία . Theaet. p. 168 A: ταρ . καὶ ἀπορία , Alc. ii. p. 146, 15 : ταρ , τε καὶ ἀνομία , 2Ma_13:16. Comp. τάραχος , Act_12:18; Act_19:23.
[154] Weizsäcker, p. 125, conjectures from Barnabas 4 ( à ), where a saying of Enoch is quoted about the shortening ( συντέτμηκεν ) of the days of the final offence (comp. ver. 20; Mat_24:22), that the properly apocalyptic elements of the discourse as to the future are of Jewish origin, from an Apocalypse of Enoch; but the conjecture rests on much too bold and hasty an inference, hazarded as it is on a single thought, which Jesus Himself might very fairly share with the Jewish consciousness in general.
[155] Nevertheless, between the passage before us and Matt. l.c. there is no essential diversity, since the disciples conceived of the destruction of Jerusalem as immediately preceding the Parousia. See on Mat_24:3. Comp. also Dorner, de orat. Chr. eschatologica, p. 45.